HL Deb 05 July 1971 vol 321 cc791-2WA
THE EARL OF HARROWBY

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they will consider continuing their Blue Book of 1878 (in 4 volumes 1213–1874) showing Members of Parliament and their constituencies, and conversely all constituencies and their Members, for the period since 1874 to the present; or whether they will arrange for it to be done up to the Centenary Year, three years hence; and furthermore whether they will add to it by giving a continuous record for each constituency separately, thereby obviating the great amount of research, and therefore risk of error, involved in using them in collecting wholesale data for a place from the tremendous collection of past General Elections.

LORD WINDLESHAM

The series, which was published in compliance with Orders made in another place, related to the period up to 1880, and much of the information it gave is available for later years in private publications. It would be for Parliament to decide whether the cost of continuing and expanding the series, as the noble Earl proposes, would be justified.